President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Monday justified the existence of a bi-cameral legislature consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Lawan said the adoption of a bi-cameral legislature was intended to address the country’s diversity and ethnic composition to ensure justice, equity and fairness for all Nigerians “irrespective of whether they are from minority or majority ethnic groups.”
He stated this at the third University of Benin/National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS’) convocation ceremonies at the National Assembly, Abuja.
Lawan also said having a unicameral legislature “may create problems of non-representation and exclusion from governance for minority ethnic groups, as well as inefficient representation for groups in the majority.”
“Nigeria has consciously adopted to have a bi-cameral National Assembly. It is because of who and what we are. The diversity of Nigeria and ethnic composition of the country requires that we have a system that provides justice, equity and fair play.
“It is a conscious decision and design to ensure that everybody is represented in the country. We need bi-cameral legislature in Nigeria,” he said.
Lawan said the quality of governance in “Nigeria can only be improved by ensuring productivity on the part of lawmakers as against demanding for a unicameral legislature.”
“What we should insist on is productivity. Members of the National Assembly must justify the expenditure on us. That is what we should be concerned with.
“We must be productive and we are on the way. We are on the way to proving that we are going to be productive.”
Lawan said only last week, the Senate passed an amendment to the Production Sharing Contracts Act of 1993, a development which would earn Nigeria $1.7 billion annually.
This, according to Lawan, was part of efforts by the National Assembly to shore-up Nigeria’s revenue as well as improve on the country’s economy in the overall interest of Nigerians.
